Skipper Ricketts hasn’t kicked a ball in the first two league games after being benched in favour of Matt Doherty, his only action coming in the 3-2 Capital One Cup defeat against Northampton when he scored.

Doherty has started the season in good form for the second year in a row but could find his place under pressure for the trip to the capital.

The game comes four days after Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Rotherham and three days before the visit of Cardiff and head coach Jackett is keen to keep his players as fresh as possible for the games against the relegated Premier League teams.

But the Wolves chief admitted Doherty had to start the season as reward for his impressive pre-season, after finally putting his injury troubles of last campaign behind him.

“It’s been a really close call but with Matt Doherty, he’s had that good a pre-season that he had to come into the side,” said Jackett.

“It’s a tough call with Sam, but the other side of it is when everyone is fresh and fit at the start of the season, I’ve got a good player to come in, which is a good thing.”

Jackett maintains Ricketts will still be a major player for the team in the Championship this season, and has already talked of extending the 32-year-old’s deal, which expires next summer.

“I do think Sam will have an impact for us. He’s been unlucky because it’s been close between the two of them,” he said.

“I think you can pick any four of those five between that current back four and Ricketts, any four of those five combinations and probably get an equal performance.”

Meanwhile, Tommy Rowe is set to be available for his competitive Wolves debut this weekend after making his comeback in the Under-21s at Albion last night.

“We’ll see how things go but we think he’ll be OK for Saturday,” said Jackett. “We’ll just have to see now how much training he needs but one game and he should be up and running.”